Blade & Soul PvP First Impressions

Along the swift and enjoyable journey of leveling in Blade & Soul, you will eventually bump into the arena section of the game where you can get to see the PvP aspect of the Korean MMORPG.

When I got my hands on the NA/EU version of Blade & Soul, I decided to go on a comfortable path without rushing through the leveling segment.

It seemed very entertaining to play around with the wheels of fate and spend hours trying out the various dungeons through the cross-server dungeon lobby that really provides almost zero-second queues.

Sadly, I am the kind of guy who easily gets frustrated by balance issues in PvP, but Blade & Soul is a game that actually managed to keep me calm. My earlier pleasant experiences from engaging in open world fights by equipping a faction's outfit have eventually led to a slight confidence in queueing up for the 1v1 arena.

Needless to say, it took seconds for a match to come up and so my first arena fight in the west commenced. My first opponent was a Summoner, which is a class that I slightly feared. I kept on calming myself with the thought that I am an Assassin and it is a class that usually does well in PvP, at least in most MMORPGs. And so the fight began and funny enough I got totally wrecked by my opponent but it was all my fault. I was foolish enough to go with the recommended PvP preset in the Martial Tome section which was a huge mistake. In the second round, I played around with the settings and it resulted in a drastic change. I managed to beat the summoner after a few minutes struggle with over 70% of my HP left and it was a very pleasing victory, to say the least.

After a few more arenas with various classes as opponents it really became evident that as long as you understand what your skill alterations do and what your opponent's class is capable of, you will see the game as very balanced in terms of PvP.

Of course, I ran into a few more losses and not every class was easily beaten, but I felt it was a great source of entertainment rather than just the usual PvP frustration. The whole 1v1 arena setting almost felt like I was playing Mortal Kombat where the right key presses gain you a victory.

If you are one of those keyboard smashers like myself, who gets easily angered by PvP, then based on my experiences in Blade & Soul so far, I can confidently recommend trying out the 1v1 arena in the game, but be sure to choose the right build before each match to avoid getting humiliated.

Self Introduction From Author:

Daniel Csaki

Daniel is an experienced gaming and tech journalist with a Bachelor in Communication and Journalism. Beyond his dedication to writing, he is an eager MMORPG enthusiast and a regular keyboard-smasher. When not writing, you can spot him in MMOs like Aion, ArcheAge, APB and he tends to suffer from the well-known "with or without you" WoW relationship. Besides MMO games, Daniel loves playing retro RPGs with his fiancée.